Walmart True to its Massive Clean Energy Promises

After years of little progress, Walmart is now among the major corporations fueling the growth of the US renewable energy sector with big, long-term investments

When Walmart hits the headlines, it’s often not for the most positive reasons. From allegations of predatory pricing and poor working conditions to low wages, the company has been involved in so much controversy that when it pledged in 2005 that its business would one day be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy, there was healthy skepticism that the company was engaged in greenwashing.

As recently as last year, skepticism still held sway, with a nonprofit advocacy group reporting that the company’s sustainability initiatives “are heavy on admiration-inducing goals and astonishingly light on execution.”

Yet the turnaround since then has been dramatic. The company has been expanding its use of wind and solar power in particular to the point that 26 percent of its power comes from renewable sources – up from 3 percent last year. Walmart has installed 105 megawatts of solar panels on the roofs of 327 stores and distribution centers, enough to make the company the single biggest solar power generator in the United States, Forbes reported.